The Origins of Aids, by Jacques Pepin

If you think that the AIDS pandemic began with a promiscuous French airline attendant in the early 1980's you would be wrong.  Though our cultural awareness begins here I think.  HIV, the causative agent of AIDS, has been around quite a long time in humans (at least as far back as the first decades of the 20th century - well documented by analysis of archival specimens and DNA analysis of mutation rates of existing strains of HIV) and in chimps as nearly genetically identical SIV for many thousands of years before that.  Pepin, a microbiologist and researcher, does an exhausting job outlining the origins of AIDS from its beginnings in the jungles of central Africa to its global spread.  His theory, and I would argue that the preponderance of evidence moves it out of the hypothesis stage to theory, is that the virus jumped to humans from chimps (the common chimp, pan troglodytes) from incidental contact during hunting (a human hunter butchers a chimp with a machete and gets contaminated by chimp blood).  This hunter either makes his way to a city that rapidly urbanized during 20th century colonization (e.g. Leopoldville), sleeps with a prostitute and disseminates the virus in this manner, exponentially, for the prostitute sleeps with many others, or remains in the rural areas of the Congo and gets treated parenterally (e.g. intravenously) for Yaws, sleeping sickness or another tropical disease, contaminates the syringes, which are reused frequently without proper sterilization, and launches the exponential spread of the virus in this manner.  Either way, the exponential spread of the virus was enabled by colonization and subsequently spread globally by international trade and travel.  Pepin's work is scholarly and exhaustive in detail, documenting epidemiological data for central Africa mind numbingly at times.  Too much for the lay reader and sometimes even for me (I'm a pathologist).  Nevertheless, if you are interested in the true origins of HIV, or even certain aspects of 20th century central African colonization by Belgium and France, it is well worth your time.

Under the Skin, by Michel Faber

Not sure how I stumbled across this. I probably read it in an online review of another book. Like most good stories, the reader's perspective/feelings/orientation to the world changes with the telling. For me, the real strength of this tale is how Faber inexorably pulls you into a different place from where you started - the simple, taught, style of the narrative, along with its brooding milieu. A bit weaker is the thinly veiled social commentary; I suppose it reduces the story to allegory. Nevertheless, it is nicely crafted and worth the effort.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz

A great read, I would argue, on its own with its humor, pace, rich character development and craftmanship. Yet, even better is that almost every other page has some vague reference to a Tolkein tale or sci-fi adventure, both of which I am a fan. And much of the story takes place in NJ, my home for 35+ years, with a good swath in my own college town of New Brunswick (Rutgers). How nostalgic did I feel when Diaz placed Oscar in some geek-sponsored club meeting in the river dorm basement classrooms?